1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a frame rate control technique preferably applied to an information processing apparatus such as personal computer including a function reproducing a high definition digital versatile disc (HD DVD).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with advantage in digital compression coding technique of motion image, a player capable of handling a high definition video conformable to a high definition (HD) standard has come into wide use. In recent years, software for handling a high definition video of the HD standard has been developed.
The processing capability of a personal computer is largely different depending on the performance of a built-in CPU. In addition, the personal computer can simultaneously operate various software. Thus, the operating environment of each software is largely variable on the same personal computer.
Considering the foregoing circumstances, various proposals have been made so far (e.g., see Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOAKI Publication No. 2001-245294). According to the proposal, decoding of digital compression coded motion video data is switched to a simple operation to reduce load in accordance with the condition.
According to the HD DVD Video standard, five Planes, that is, Plane 1 to Plane 5 are defined. Cursor, graphics, sub-picture, sub-video and main video are assigned to each of planes. Thus, five images have a need be synthesized to the maximum to reproduce a HD DVD Video standard AV content stored in a DVD media. Therefore, in addition to decoding, rendering processing of synthesizing and drawing a plurality of images considerably increases.
However, the foregoing Publication No. 2001-245294 has variously studied a mechanism of controlling decoding processing. But, actually, a mechanism of controlling the foregoing rendering processing has not any studied so far. An increase of the rendering processing is a factor of causing the following problem. According to the problem, even if decoding is reduced to the maximum limit, there is a possibility that a drop frame is generated. Therefore, it is deeply desired to propose a mechanism of controlling the rendering processing.